Fit for the
Presidency? Long before he was elected, George W. Bush was dogged by the opinion that he wasn't up to the job, that he only rose to power because of his family pedigree. But Bush is far from the first president to be called unworthy of the position. Even Lincoln, one of the greatest presidents, was thought by many to be too uneducated, too unrefined, for the office - before he took it, that is.

Here are cartoonists' treatments of two presidents who at the time were considered unable to handle the hardest job on Earth. First up is Ulysses S. Grant, who presided over one of the most corrupt administrations in American history. The members of Grant's Cabinet were on the payrolls of whiskey makers, naval contractors and leaders of virtually every facet of the burgeoning American economy. Grant's own character has never been called into question, but his inability to control his underlings has labeled him a failure. That said, Ulysses S. Grant is one of the main reasons the Union won the Civil War. For his contribution as a general - as "Unconditional Surrender" Grant - his country is eternally grateful. Next up is William Howard Taft. With the unenviable task of following the nation's most robust president - Theodore Roosevelt - Taft is distinguished merely for being the fattest president, weighing in at 330 pounds. In 1907, when Roosevelt decided not to seek re-election, he put up his "right hand man" for the job. Taft won easily, but he proved too indecisive for the task, even angering his mentor. Roosevelt waged a primary against him in 1912.

QUESTIONS
1. "Third term" - we thought presidents could only serve two terms. Why is Grant trying to hang onto a third one?2. Who are all those bozos hanging from his teeth?
3. Why are they a weight on Grant?4. What mess of yarn is William Howard Taft trying to make sense of?5. Does it look like he will be able to get it all in order?6. Why is Roosevelt looking in the window with that expression?7. Consider these cartoons and recent ones about President Bush. Has the political cartoonist's job changed much over the last century-plus? What is that job?
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Righteous
and Harmonious Fists

The
test of wills China waged over the crew of an American spy plane was
certainly not the first time it's tussled with a western nation on its
own soil. In fact, compared with events past, the recent fracas is
barely a blip on the radar screen. Just look to the turn of the last
century. China was embroiled in conflicts with more than just the United
States - and the disputes turned bloody as can be. Fed up with decades
if other countries - Austria, France, Germany, Russia, Great Britain,
Italy, Japan and the United States - partitioning China into areas of
financial, and sometimes religious, control, the Chinese rose up in 1900
to kick the foreigners out. The massive peasant uprising, supported by
the state, came to be known in the west as the Boxer Rebellion, named
for a secret society of hand-to-hand fighters who called themselves the
I-ho ch' an ("Righteous and Harmonious Fists"). The fighters
believed the boxing regimen they followed made them invulnerable, even
to gunfire. They were quite successful, for a time - and then the
foreign powers got serious. They sent in an international force, led by
a contingent of 2,500 U.S. sailors. The peasant Boxers were no match. On
September 7th, 1901, China signed the Boxer Protocol, by which it
compensated the U.S. and other nations for financial losses incurred
during the uprising.